There was a boy, his name was John, and he was in his early twenties. He dropped out of high school, two years later got his GED, and another two-and-a-half years later after that was at university beginning his junior year of college. The whole time he wanted to major in accounting, for the stability, security, and money it brought, and yet he didn't want to be an accountant or major in it.

He didn't like Accounting. He didn't go home thinking about accounting and dreaming of becoming a CEO of an accounting firm or an intern to learn the ins-and-outs of it and discover that everyone else just hated it and got into it for the exact reasons he did. They all wanted to do something else, the thing that brought them joy, and when they were asked why instead they went into accounting than doing what they wanted they said, "Because it was unlikely I was going to get a good job in that." And then they all said, "But Accounting was going to." The government put a real number on these people - and John.

The world doesn't want you to do what you want. They don't want you to be independent, working for yourself, and being good and better at what you do than they do. They want you to be extremely dependent, extremely desperate, and, most of all, obedient. They don't want you to know that you can actually do what you want and make a living. That's what they did after all and if you weren't there to do the work they didn't want to do they wouldn't have their dream that you would want.

It is an illusion to think you have a choice in this country. True choice is when you decide between two decisions that give out the same benefit and when the only difference is based on your own preference (boobs or butts, blondes or brunettes, what's the difference?). It is not a choice if you have to choose between going to college or being homeless. You can pick which college, which major, which job, and which friends but it is all the same and the only thing you're deciding actually on is how you want to choose to be slaved. There are forty year-old Harvard graduates, right now, with a 150k job, a wife and five kids, and a forty hour workweek who are saying they're unhappy - and isn't that the dream? Go search anywhere online and you'll see I'm not lying. In fact, you probably already know this to be true - but you say, "That won't be me." And I'm sure they said that too.

It's a lie because it's THEIR dream, not yours. They know it, this person writing this knows it and all you people who're reading this and are in denial of it know it. You're not living your dream going to work forty hours a week, at a job you hate, coming home for the rest of the day barely being able to see your wife and kids and having to be stressed out for the rest of the day so much you need to yell and have five minutes of your time to yourself because you need to drink and relax. That is not the dream, they only want you to think that and they throw big cars, houses, and women at you to make you think it.

But if I don't I'll be homeless, my wife and kids will starve, and I'll be unhappy and not survive. If that's what you're saying to yourself right now as the excuse to why you're not doing what you're really wanting to do, then you are, without a doubt, admitting to yourself you're a slave. If that's not good enough to release yourself from this imaginary chain they have you on to do what you want, then why are you living? To live their dream? Because that's what you're doing.

This boy, John, he wanted to be a writer, a poker player, a literary enthusiast, and, at best, something in television or movies. He did not want to be an accountant, a CEO, or to work forty hours a week doing something he hated only to regret it later. But fear held him back. He didn't want to be homeless, he didn't want his future wife and kids to starve, he himself didn't want to starve and not have the big house or car that he saw that everyone else had when he was deciding if to go to college or not.

But he sat, as a forty year old, a successful accountant, with the the five kids and beautiful wife, wishing he had risked his twenty-two year-old self by going after what he wanted instead of what he did until waiting it was too late because now he had people he had to take care and it was already too late to do what he wanted.

So, I, John, the twenty-two year old who's going to university as a junior and had just failed his first two accounting classes, quit his major in accounting and do what he would rather want to do like English? Or is that something too risky and instead he should just hang up his dreams and become an accountant because it's safe instead?

good read.


if there's something you love to do and are good enough at it to be successful, you'll probably regret not taking a shot more than following the dream and failing. for most people though, their perception of their own talent is skewed and they waste time/money on following a dream
they don't have the talent to achieve.

be honest with yourself and good luck

don't want to crush your dreams. maybe there are options besides accounting. but your writing is not at a level sufficient to go pro. you come across as young and naive and idealistic, whimsical. if you want to be a waiter and do some writing on the side, then that may be a good option for you. otherwise, probably better to find something more secure and reliable. up to you though. rat race isn't for everyone.

most peoples dreams are something involving entertainment or creativity ie sports, music, art, acting, writing, high fashion etc. a very small subset of the population have the talent to make it a career.

once you rise above entry level in more practical fields you generally gain more autonomy and becoming somewhat of an expert in something is quite nice and helps stroke the ego. gotta find your niche but not necessarily as depressing and soul crushing as most young people think.

Just graduated with a degree in accounting, thanks for killing my dreams

It's fine to be a writer... Just don't get married and have kids. It's not fair to the kids.

Remember that most 'writers' have soul crushing jobs that they hate... That pay <20$ an hour. It's not that they end up homeless, it's that they end up getting older and more bitter with every passing year.

Being a successful writer is a LOT of luck combined with a LOT of talent. If you were going to be a successful writer someone would have told you 'you really should be a writer' by this point. You would have been writing short stories at 12 and they would have been good. (and people would have been talking about how good they were) You probably would have finished a novel before you started college. It wouldn't have been very good (by your own absurdly high standards) but you would have finished it.

It's fine to not want to be an accountant. Accounting is seriously dull. Pick something you can tolerate and write for fun and fufillment. Not everyone gets to do what they enjoy doing for a living. Those activities are usually fun... Which is why so many people want to do them and why economically it's so difficult to break into them.

EDIT: Also how the hell did you fail accounting courses? Besides not going to class... which isn't really an excuse. I didn't go to any of my accounting classes and I stilled pulled A's in all of them. Accounting is the biggest frat boy undergrad degree in the world.

Trying to be an accountant when you hate it and fail your accounting classes does not seem like a safe choice to me. Find something you actually enjoy. Few people are incredibly successful at things they hate doing.

A good career choice is some local maxima that balances what you are good at, what you are interested in, and what people (doesn't matter who-- an employer, clients, whatever) will pay you to do.

Find a field that meshes these three better than any other field for you and that is probably what you should study. WAY too many people just take the maximum of "what I'm interested in" with no consideration for the others.

HAHAAHAHA WHAAAAT??!?!!?

I'm still going to major accounting but I'm not going to give up on writing. My appeal to it isn't that I have excellent prose, or that I'm the next coming, or that I've been told all my life to do it but it's that I love the idea of constructing a great plot that makes sense and is impressive. I feel like that's one of the hardest things to do and I want to be able to do it. I was asked by my english teacher if what I was majoring in was english or if that I wanted to be a writer because all my essays were 15+ pages long and I was the only one, apparently, who got A's because the teacher, I suppose because she said it herself, was notorious for never giving out A's. But the real reason I feel I could do it is because I've read a lot of books and time and time again am just disappointed at how crappy some are. Some are amazing, and are works I know I'll never be able to match, but then some are so crappy I wonder how they ever got published. And then I tell myself that if they could do it I could do it too and I really believe it. I'm not going to give up on accounting (as much as I know I'm going to hate it) but I also don't want to give up on writing or poker either.

Is this about you? Because mine wasn't anything like this.

I'm sorry you're not very bright. Accounting courses are insanely easy in undergrad. The CPA exam is a totally different thing... But 300-400 level accounting classes are cake.

EDIT: And nothing on the CPA exam is conceptually hard (like higher level math is). It's just a truly massive amount of rote memorization.

What 300-400 level accounting classes have you taken?

A lot of subjects are easy. I find accounting easy, but I also find most subjects easy. Not sure where you get the perception that accounting is for frat boys. That wasn't the case at my school.

The CPA exam is 100% based off my undergrad accounting degree. There's nothing on the exam I didn't learn in college.

I'm not majoring in accounting anymore (WOOHOO!). When I had my first three accounting classes for the new semester earlier this week my brain hurt so much from doing it. I realized I hated it and that I had no interest in it, so I dropped the classes and went to switch my major to what I was already doing in my free-time, which was reading and writing, and switched to English.

I was majoring in accounting because of peer-and-family pressure. It was not ever what I wanted to do personally. I only did it because of the money and financial security. But I realized I hated it and that I wanted my life to have nothing ever to do with business. I also know that it's a well-known fact that doing something just purely for the money is always wrong. And that doing something for something you love is almost always not wrong. I don't care if I just end up becoming a teacher, at least I'll be doing something for me for once and taking a chance.

Also, I've never been so excited about doing homework in my life! God I hate accounting. Don't do it. Do what you love. Your future self will thank you.

Managerial Cost Accounting and Intro to tax

both 300 level come to think of it. I also obv took the two 200 level accounting classes.

This could be it. I also find econ and finance absurdly easy. Probably has something to do with being sincerely interested in how the world actually works.

Is English your primary language?

you have just made a series of really awful life decisions. unless your education is heavily subsidized by scholarships, you are now paying to acquire a degree that will never pay for itself.

enjoy college. learn to live cheaply.

^ This. Don't come asking for my tax dollars in 5 years to raise your minimum wage.

Wes Anderson majored in Philosophy. Owen Wilson majored in English. What have you done with your ****ing life? That's right. **** you.

OP,

I'm an academic (historian). I can tell you that smart, motivated people do well in life. A dip**** accounting major with a 2.2 GPA is not going to do better in this world than a 3.8 GPA English major. I assure you. I have plenty of students (history majors) who were super talented and had great work ethics who have been amazingly successful (lawyers, diplomats, Capitol staffers, insurance industry, military officers, you name it).

You want to know what the secret to success is? Most people are quite common. Don't be common.

Just drop out of college, that's what Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg did.

And you know this how?

Do what you want man. You only go to college once. Just acknowledge that it's a risk. When I graduated high school, I decided to major in sociology. Ten years later I have a successful, well paying career in data analytics. I love it. I still love sociology. I'm glad I took the risk. YOLO BRO.